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MAPS 4: Join Berry Tramel on a panel discussion next week

I don’t live in Oklahoma City. Never have. Been a lifelong Norman resident.

But I’ve worked in OKC for almost three decades and been going to OKC all my life and been enjoying the fruits of living in a major metropolitan area that entire time, and for the last 25 years I’ve really enjoyed the fruits of Oklahoma City’s renaissance.

I also know a thing or two about sports in Oklahoma.

So on Tuesday night of next week, December 3, I’ll be a part of a panel that discusses the MAPS 4 projects. The Oklahoman has assembled the panel to discuss downtown development as it relates to the proposed projects. A December 10 vote is scheduled for the fourth iteration of MAPS, the penny-sales-tax funded initiatives that over the last 25 years have changed our city.

Our man Steve Lackmeyer, who knows more about downtown OKC than downtown OKC knows about itself, will moderate.

Lackmeyer asks some good questions about the project: “How will MAPS 4, especially the less publicized aspects, fit in with the future American Indian Cultural Center and adjoining commercial development being planned by the Chickasaw Nation? How will corridor improvements, a low water dam, appearance upgrades for highway bridges and pedestrian crossings link south shore cultural and commercial development led by the Chickasaws with the boathouse district and plans for commercial development on the north shore of the Oklahoma River?”

I don’t pass myself off as an expert on a low water dam or highway bridges or pedestrian crossings. But I do know a little about major-league arenas and the proposed new arena at the fairgrounds and what the proposed soccer stadium could bring to downtown.

I’ll be on a panel with mayor David Holt; Gov. Bill Anoatubby of the Chickasaw Nation; Katy Evans Boren, president and CEO of the Oklahoma City Innovation District; Mike Knopp, executive director of the Oklahoma City Boathouse Foundation; and Darren Ransley with the OKC FC Energy.

Our town hall meeting format is for anyone interested in where downtown real estate development is heading, to get a grasp of what’s coming. It will be held from 6-8 p.m. on that Tuesday, December 3, in the Sheraton Hotel, across the street north from the Cox Convention Center.

Tickets are $40, but that includes a 5:30 p.m. reception with light hors d’oeuvres, beer and wine. It’s a great chance for all of us to learn more about the MAPS 4 proposals and what they mean for our city. It’s also a chance for some of my readers to come by and say hello.

Berry Tramel, a lifelong Oklahoman, sports fan and newspaper reader, joined The Oklahoman in 1991 and has served as beat writer, assistant sports editor, sports editor and columnist. Tramel grew up reading four daily newspapers — The Oklahoman,...
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